Automated processing machines have been developed which utilize varied types of rotating and pivoting cutting blades which move into contact with and through the shoulder joints of poultry carcasses as the carcasses move in series along a processing path, to remove the wings from the carcasses. A problem with these early processing machines was the hazard of forming bone chips and other loose fragments of bone with the cutting blades and the bone chips and fragments becoming caught in the meat of the poultry carcass that was to be shipped to the consumer.
More recent poultry processing systems, as illustrated by U. S. Pat. Nos. 4,016,624, 4,503,587, and 4,536,919, have been disclosed which tend to reduce this risk of bone fragments being dislodged by the cutting blades. For the operation of these machines, a poultry carcass is placed on a conveyor for movement through the cutting area of the machine Stationary rotary cutting blades straddling the conveyor sever the main tendon at each shoulder joint between the wings and the breast of the poultry carcass Guide rods on either side of the conveyor support the wings and exert a frictional drag on the wings as the carcass is moved forward by the conveyor toward the cutting blades. This dragging force causes the shoulder joints between the wings and the poultry breast to partially open for passage of the cutting blades through the shoulder with minimal contact with the bones of the joint.
The design and operation of these current processing machines have reduced the risk of bone fragments in cut-up poultry. However, in doing so, these devices have a tendency to pull meat pieces away from the breast portions of the poultry carcasses and remove these pieces with the less valuable wings Further, the processing speed of these machines is slow as each carcass must be carefully positioned on the conveyor for cutting and later with some machines and carcasses must be manually removed by the operator before another carcass can take its place on the conveyor.
Thus, it would be a distinct improvement in the art if a poultry processing method and apparatus were devised for rapidly separating the wings from the breasts of poultry carcasses without substantial hazard of creating bone fragments from the severing of the shoulder joints, and retaining as much meat from the wing with the breast as possible.
Accordingly, it is the provision of such a method and apparatus to which the present invention is primarily directed.